I received an email from a guy today. He is 17 years old, and his email stated that he wishes to ‘break the world record for longboarding’. I’m not sure what record that is, but he asked about my training, and about my board, and any wisdom that I might care to share.

My email response soon became a bit of an epic. After typing it all out, I hit the send button, but the message was returned to me as undeliverable. I hope he is reading this, as I was intending to post my reply here anyway, just to share my thoughts on what I have been doing for the last two years…

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Hi there,

Great to hear from you. I am happy to hear that you have a big dream ahead of you.

In answer to your questions:

Training:
You asked about training…I would recommend that you spend as much time as possible reading distance human powered travel blogs in order to prepare (train) your mind. On my links page on my website there is a big list of such blogs (not only skating blogs). You can access that page here: http://14degrees.org/en/?page_id=47

Within their pages you will begin to get an idea of what to expect on your own journey. The ups, the downs, the joys, the struggles, the pain, the wonder. Be especially aware that for every exciting, inspirational photo of someone screaming downhill, beaming with joy and pride, there is another photo that was never taken because the traveler was so incredibly depressed and tired that they could not even bring themselves to think about opening their camera case.

I do not travel by skateboard because of some love of skateboarding. I travel the way I do because I love human powered travel. I love the way my body feels when I am fit and strong. I love pushing up long, steep uphill stretches. I love being out in the open, swallowed up by the massiveness of the surroundings. Lungs full of breath, legs full of life. It just so happens that longboarding is an exciting new way to travel long distances, and I am keen to explore and discover this mode of transport. Therefore, read cylce touring blogs as well as distance skating blogs. There are many more of those than distance skating blogs. The cycling blogs will give you much inspiration for the mental challenges ahead.

As for physical training, I have been on the road on my skateboard for a year now. When the prospect of this length of time is ahead of you, there is no need to worry about physical training much at all. For the first month of my journey, I just took it really easy, only doing about 15 to 20 miles a day, taking very long breaks and resting often. But then again, before switching to the longboard, I had already cycled 7,500 miles across Asia and Europe. I guess you could call that my ‘training’!

In the end, for an ultra long distance journey by human power (any kind of human powered transport, not just skating) it does not come down to physical fitness. It is 90% mental, and 10% physical. Your body follows whatever your mind tells it. If your mind tells you you can do it, your body will follow. The greatest thing is that you can influence right now is your mind. Speak only positive things to yourself. This is difficult at times, and many times I fail at this. But I do notice the difference when I do keep things positive.

Furthermore, once your body adapts to the physical side of the challenge, much of your energy will be taken up by everyday things like finding a place to sleep, finding food, planning how much water you will carry, planning distances between towns, communicating with strangers that have vastly different ways of seeing the world, staying in contact with family etc etc. These everyday things should not be overlooked – they are part of the journey, and take a lot of mental energy.

A comment about rest:
One of the most important things you will do for your body when you are on a long journey, is rest. That is, lie on the ground/bed/hammock/rock and do nothing kind of rest. A friend whose opinion I value much regarding physical exercise/training told me to listen to my heart – quite literally. If my resting heart rate is faster than normal in the morning, then it is time to take a rest. Rest allows you to think clearly about what is going on, and of course gives your body and muscles a chance to rebuild themselves stronger than before.

“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.”
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italian painter, sculptor and architect

My Board:
I skated 7,500 miles on a Rollsrolls deck (through Europe and across the US) before switching to a Longboard Larry deck, custom made for me by Larry himself. Larry was excited about my proposal for skating across China with a trailer, so he gave me the board out of his faith in my desire to continue to push the boundaries of long distance skating.

The World Record:
As for the world record, I encourage you to forget about it. Or at least, do not let that be your sole motivation. I am still on the road, and apparently I am still extending the world record for the longest journey by skateboard. But really, I don’t care. It is a nice icing on the cake, but in the end, the thing that motivates me the most is discovering the unknown. Discovering how my body will react to this extremely difficult mode of transport. Discovering the ways to make long distance longboard travel a practical way to travel. Discovering the people I meet along the way on the road. Discovering the limits of my own mind and motivation. Discovering what is up the road, around the corner, beyond the crest of the hill. My main motivation does not come from a desire to break a world record. If that was my only desire, I am sure that I would have given up by now.

Furthermore, I am excited by what my journey means to the distance longboarding community, and the long distance human powered community as a whole. I view my achievements to date as a small but significant contribution to an emerging niche of human powered travel. I encourage you to connect with other people involved in this community:

The Skatefurther Team: www.skatefurther.com
The Boardfree Team: www.boardfree.co.uk
The Skate New Zealand Team: www.skatenewzealand.com

These are just a few examples of what this community has to offer. I am part of this community, and it gives me massive support. Without it, I may have given up already. As an individual solo distance human powered traveler, I am nothing. With the support of others (albeit through the web) I am managing to push on.

A friend recently told me that “You deserve to keep the record for years after this effort…” I actually quite disagree with that. I fully expect someone to skate around the world one day. Indeed, I believe it is possible. Across the Eurasian continent, across the Northern American contient, and across Australia. Four contients, 16,000km (10,000 miles). It will be done some day (I hope soon), and I look forward to supporting whoever takes on that challenge.

If you really want to embark on a long distance longboard tour, ask yourself the following questions and answer them honestly:

- What is my internal intent? That is, why do I want to achieve this goal? What do I love about it? How will my life change once I achieve my goal?

- What is my esternal intent? How will achieving my goal help other people? How will it benefit those closest to me? How will is benefit the community I belong to?

(Taken from Kick Start Your Success by Romanus Wolter, ISBN-10 0-471-77346-8)

I hope this helps, and I wish you all the best in realising your dreams.

If I can help out with anything else, then let me know!

All the best,
Rob

“Whatever you do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it. Begin it now!”
Johann Wolfgang von Geothe 1749-1832

So that was the email response to the guy. His email was about five lines long. I hope me response doesn’t overwhelm him too much…

Changing the topic somewhat, I would also like to take this opportunity to share something that I thought about a lot recently, and that is my faith in Jesus; you know, the guy from the New Testament in the Christian bible that supposedly has blue eyes and long blonde hair…you know the guy.

I am wary of sharing this on my blog here, as I am sure that not everyone will agree. But I am not looking for everyone to agree. I am simply doing what I always do on this blog – trying to honestly share the struggles and joys of being on the road, share the inner turmoil and the personal discovery that I exeprience on a daily basis.

Anyway, I was brought up in a Christian home, and for all my life I have tried as hard as possible to live a life according to the guildelines set out in the bible. I never found these guildelines limiting, and I always saw them as having meaning and purpose if one was to live as stable and balanced a personal and social life as possible.

However over the course of my time living in Japan, and over the course of this journey, I began wondering what all the point was. I still believed that the bible was a solid foundation for life, despite the fact that the institition that is the church often screwed up and got (gets) all high and powerful, often to the extent of causing great harm to humanity.

But I was successful, I was on an adventure, I was (and still am) content. Why bother with religion? Below are some thoughts I jotted down on the train from Shanghai to Urumqi, on the way to begninning this longboard journey across China:

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